© Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/TNS Mayor Brandon Scott attended a news conference along with President Joe Biden as the president visited Penn Station to talk about the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding that will replace the 150-year old Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel.

With the ancient, dimly lit Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel behind him, President Joe Biden touted job creation and labor agreements Monday during a visit to Baltimore to highlight replacement of the tunnel, which has come to symbolize America’s crumbling infrastructure.

© Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun/TNS Protesters stage signs against the planned B&P Tunnel are set up along North Avenue below the Jones Falls Expressway as President Biden visits Baltimore to tout the tunnel project.

The White House billed the speech as a “kickoff event” for a $6 billion, federally funded project to replace a 4-mile section of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, including the mile-long, 19th-century B&P Tunnel, with two tubes that will allow trains to travel at 100 mph.

© Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/TNS Guests arrive and are screened through the Secret Service checkpoint before President Biden visits Penn Station.

“This is just the beginning of having a 21st-century rail system so long overdue,” the Democratic president said.

As a U.S. senator, Biden commuted between his home state of Delaware and Washington on Amtrak for years. The president said he had been through the tunnel 1,000 times while logging more than a million miles on the passenger railroad.

“He’s been stuck by the delays of this tunnel many times,” U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, said during the program.

The old tunnel, built during the post-Civil War administration of Republican President Ulysses S. Grant, is considered a bottleneck for Amtrak and MARC commuter trains because it forces them to creep along at 30 mph or less.

© Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/TNS Guests arrive and are screened through the Secret Service checkpoint before President Biden visits Penn Station to talk about the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding.

After a MARC train slowly rolled by before Biden spoke, he said: “You know how important this is to commuter rail.”

“Over 2,200 trains run on this corridor every single day,” said the president, referring to the whole stretch from Washington to Boston. “It’s the busiest in the United States and one of the busiest in the world.”

Biden was greeted by Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, both Democrats, after his Marine One helicopter landed about 1:40 p.m. on a patch of grass at Fort McHenry. They entered the same car in a motorcade that sped to the mouth of the tunnel near Penn Station in Midtown.

© Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/TNS A MARC train emerges from the B&P (Baltimore and Potomac) Tunnel before Joe Biden, president of the United States speaks about the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, whose funding will upgrade the 150-year old tunnel.

“Presence matters, and the fact that the president is making such an investment in us matters,” Moore said.

Biden spoke from a lectern in front of the tracks near the train station. The tunnel’s small arched stone opening was visible about 150 yards behind him. Red, white and blue bunting was draped on a nearby bridge and warehouse, and a shiny, new Acela train sat nearby.

Other trains rolled by on adjacent tracks, some sounding their whistles.

Most of the B&P Tunnel project is being funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law approved by Congress in November 2021. Biden considers the $1 trillion package a signature achievement because of its potential effect on roads, tunnels and other infrastructure, and because it is the result of a rare partnership of congressional Democrats and Republicans.

© Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/TNS An Acela train idles before President Biden visits Penn Station.

Biden has been touting the law in various spots recently. The president appeared in early January with Mitch McConnell, the Republican U.S. Senate leader from Kentucky, to tout funding for an aging bridge connecting Kentucky and Ohio.

The replacement tunnel for the B&P will be named for abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who was born into slavery on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Demolition and track work are planned to start this year. While the old tunnel followed a curvy track under Bolton Hill, Upton and Sandtown-Winchester, the new one will arc smoothly to the north under Reservoir Hill and Penn North before emerging near a new West Baltimore MARC station.

© Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/TNS Guests arrive and are screened through the Secret Service checkpoint before President Biden visits Penn Station to talk about the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding that will replace the 150-year old Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel to address the largest bottleneck for commuters on the Northeast Corridor.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller, U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen and U.S. Reps. Kweisi Mfume, C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger and Steny Hoyer also appeared with Biden during the midafternoon speech. All are Democrats.

Not all of the project is federally funded. Moore placed $450 million for the tunnel in his proposed, $63 billion budget plan, which he submitted to the General Assembly shortly after he was sworn in Jan. 18.

© Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/TNS People wait for President Biden to visit Penn Station to talk about the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding that will replace the 150-year old Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel.

A White House memorandum emphasizes job creation, saying the tunnel-related work, which will take years, is expected to generate 30,000 jobs, mostly in construction.

© Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/TNS An Acela train idles at Penn Station before President Biden visits Penn Station.

The tunnel’s alignment has run into some opposition in West Baltimore from those concerned about construction and train noise, vibration and pollution. A small protest that included the group Residents Against The Tunnels drew people to North Avenue during Biden’s visit. One of the signs said, “I love President Biden. I love trains. But new tunnel route hurts West Baltimore.” Another said: “The new tunnels HURT us. Health & safety first!”

© Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/TNS Governor Wes Moore (D-Md.) acknowledges a MARC train that emerges from the B&P (Baltimore and Potomac) Tunnel during his speech before Joe Biden, president of the United States speaks about the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, whose funding will upgrade the 150-year old tunnel, alleviating the bottleneck that has stifled the Amtrak and freight rail Northeast Corridor route.

But Mfume, who represents the area surrounding the train station, told The Baltimore Sun before Biden spoke that the project is being done “in lockstep with the community.”

© Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/TNS Pete Buttigeg, secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation greets Gov. Wes Moore (D-Md.) before Joe Biden, president of the United States speaks about the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, whose funding will upgrade the 150-year old Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel, alleviating the bottleneck that has stifled the Amtrak and freight rail Northeast Corridor route between Washington, D.C. and New Jersey.

Biden said the project includes Amtrak labor agreements with the Baltimore-DC Metro Building and Construction Trades Council and the North America’s Building Trades Unions. Such agreements establish rules for work rules and wages, among other things.

© Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/TNS Workers applaud Joe Biden, president of the United States who arrives to speak about the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, whose funding will upgrade the 150-year old tunnel, alleviating the bottleneck that has stifled the Amtrak and freight rail Northeast Corridor route between Washington, D.C. and New Jersey.

The Biden administration has promoted the president’s support of organized labor. In 2022, he signed an executive order requiring labor agreements on federal construction projects above $35 million.

© Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/TNS Joe Biden, president of the United States speaks at the podium about the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, whose funding will upgrade the 150-year old tunnel.

The administration was criticized recently by some unions, who said they were undercut by Biden’s support of a measure last December to avert a nationwide rail strike. The administration said a strike would have crippled the economy.

This was Biden’s third visit to Democrat-dominated Baltimore since becoming president in 2021. He’s made trips to the Port of Baltimore and to a CNN town hall at Center Stage.

©2023 Baltimore Sun. Visit baltimoresun.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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President Joe Biden visits Penn Station in Baltimore on Monday to talk about the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding that will replace the 150-year old Baltimore & Potomac Tunnel.

© Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/TNS